Backcountry BASECAMP will be held this weekend at CBMR

Demos, education, tours and a HUGE raffle

Backcountry Magazine, in association with Gore-Tex, Patagonia, Marmot and Voilé, is enhancing its education and safety messaging during this year’s BASECAMP tour by supporting local nonprofit organizations that carry out this work on a daily basis. Each stop along the BASECAMP tour will include a Saturday evening raffle with all proceeds—as much as $10,000—going to local nonprofit groups.
Now in its third year, this winter’s BASECAMP tour hits Crested Butte on March 14-15 benefitting the Crested Butte Avalanche Center, the Crested Butte Avy Dogs program and the WSCU Mountain Sports Team. BASECAMP will be set up all day Saturday and Sunday at the Crested Butte Mountain Resort  (CBMR) base area. Irwin Guides will provide free guided backcountry tours both Saturday and Sunday leaving from the Backcountry Basecamp yurt at the base area of CBMR. Show up either day at 9 a.m. to get signed up for a tour. They are slated to start at 10 a.m. and will last from three to four hours. There will be demos of the latest backcountry touring gear available from Atomic, Salomon, Scott and Cold Smoke Splitboards as well as a fleet from the Alpineer, but if you have your own gear, bring it just in case. Don’t forget sunscreen, food and water. The raffle will be at Butte 66 on Saturday starting at 4 p.m. More than $15,000 in prizes will be up for grabs including skis, boots, skins and more.
“The point of BASECAMP is to bring more backcountry education and safety messaging to the broader skiing community,” says Backcountry Magazine editorial director Adam Howard. “We can do this during the weekend that we’re present, but we also want to support the people whose mission it is to educate these individuals every day. This means the local avalanche centers, search and rescue organizations and area ski patrols.”
In response to last year’s event at CBMR, Jake Jones from the Crested Butte Avalanche Center said, “It is rare that an event rolls into town with the intentions of leaving the place better than they found it. [Backcountry BASECAMP] did that!” The Avalanche Center will be one of the beneficiaries of the raffle at Butte 66 this year.
Backcountry Magazine created BASECAMP during the winter of 2012 to bring backcountry education and technique to resorts around the country. Over the past three years the tour has grown from one stop in Vermont to three across the nation.
For more information, visit www.backcountrymagazine.com/basecamp.